Another week.
Another article on a statement or action by Coup Plotter-Election Denier-Conspiracy Theory Lover-Fringe reactionary Mark Finchem.
In an attempt to stick up for Coup Plotter-Election Denier Kindred Spirit (and now imploded 2024 Republican Presidential Candidate) Josh Hawley after Loews Hotels canceled its hosting of a fundraiser for the Missouri Senator, Mr. Finchem tweeted:
Lowe’s has permanently lost my business. This is what Hitler and Stalin did, what’s next camps? Ovens? Patriots, you might want to #cancelLoews reservations. pic.twitter.com/703Nvn9yTp
— Mark Finchem (@MarkFinchem) January 18, 2021
Honestly, there was a part of me that wondered if Mr. Finchem, in saying Lowes, confused the hardware store chain with the hotel one.
In releasing this tweet, Finchem, already facing an ethics complaint and a potential investigation, for his part in the attempted January 6, 2021 insurrection, showed he is an embarrassment to the public service profession.
Comparing what the Loews Hotel Chain did to the actions of the perpetrators of the Holocaust and Stalinist Purges where millions of innocent people were exterminated because of either their religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity, or political status, is asinine as well as ludicrous.
As Laurie Roberts, reacting to Finchem’s tweet, stated in a January 18, 2021 column:
“Yeah, patriots, because the first step toward genocide is always the cancellation of a resort hotel reservation…You don’t get to scream, without evidence, for two months about a stolen election then say, “Who me?” when your supporters respond.”
Roberts is right.
The coup plotters-election deniers who lit the spark and encouraged the domestic terrorist Trumpist Insurrectionists that stormed the National Capitol do not deserve any consideration or respect for the words they spoke or the acts they committed.
That includes Josh Hawley.
That includes Mark Finchem.
During his first campaign for the House of Representatives in 2014, Finchem told a local news outlet in a candidate Q&A that he is “an Oath Keeper committed to the exercise of limited, constitutional governance.” Phoenix New Times, “From Charlottesville to Oath Keepers, Rep. Mark Finchem Is a Fringe Lawmaker”, https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/rep-mark-finchem-oathkeepers-charlottesville-deep-state-conspiracy-11249452
Finchem was in Washington, D.C. for the seditious insurrection on January 6. Was he there as a member of the Oath Keepers?
Ruh-roh. The FBI is going to want to talk to you, Finchem:
“The three extremist groups that have drawn the most attention from the FBI: the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers and Three Percenters.” Washington Post, “FBI probes possible connections between extremist groups at heart of Capitol violence”, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/oath-keeper-three-percenter-arrests/2021/01/17/27e726f2-5847-11eb-a08b-f1381ef3d207_story.html
The Oath Keepers, the Three Percenters and the Proud Boys, a male-chauvinist group with ties to white nationalism, have drawn particular attention from FBI agents investigating the attack on Congress as they work to determine whether those groups organized or directed the violence to block certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s election victory. Officials have said the Proud Boys in particular are an important focus of the FBI investigation.
“All these extremist groups are being looked at in terms of their participation at the Capitol,” Michael Sherwin, acting U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, said Friday.
Oath Keepers patches and logos were prominently worn by a number of those in the mob that day. It is one of the largest self-described militia groups in the United States, claiming tens of thousands of members who assert the right to defy what they deem “illegal” government orders.
Even before the riot, the Oath Keepers had garnered attention and alarmed law enforcement officials. Stewart Rhodes, a former Army paratrooper who founded the group in 2009, threatened ahead of November’s election to deploy members to polling places, preemptively accusing Democrats of voter fraud on Alex Jones’s online show “Infowars.”
Members also demonstrated in Washington after the election in support of Trump. Rhodes, who has predicted the nation will descend into civil war, said allies would not recognize Biden’s victory as legitimate, adding in an interview with news outlet the Independent, “We’ll end up nullifying and resisting.”
CNN reports, “An apparent leader of Oath Keepers charged with planning and coordinating breach at US Capitol”, https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/19/politics/oath-keepers-capitol-riot-charges/index.html
Prosecutors have levied the first significant conspiracy charge against an apparent leader in the extremist Oath Keepers movement, alleging the Virginia man was involved in “planning and coordinating” the breach of the Capitol earlier this month, according to court documents.
The Justice Department charged Thomas Caldwell, a 65-year-old from Virginia with a leadership role in the paramilitary right-wing group, with four counts, including conspiracy to commit an offense, obstruction of an official proceeding and “Violent entry or disorderly conduct.”
Caldwell interacted in the riot alongside a group of eight to 10 people wearing Oath Keeper-emblazoned gear, who would “move in an organized and practiced fashion and force their way to the front of the crowd gathered around a door to the US Capitol,” according to a law enforcement affidavit.
Prosecutors also describe his interactions with two other charged right-wing militants, Jessica Watkins and Donovan Crowl, who also allegedly sought to stop Congress from certifying the presidential election and were part of the siege.
“We are concerned that the arrests for the Jan 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol include some U.S. military reservists and veterans. Some right-wing extremist groups, particularly the anti-government Oath Keepers, have a long history of recruiting from current and former members of the military and law enforcement,” Oren Segal, Vice President of the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism told CNN.
“Oath Keepers are part of the resurgent militia movement, which believes the federal government has been co-opted by a shadowy conspiracy that is trying to strip American citizens of their rights. Though the Oath Keepers will accept anyone as members, what differentiates them from other anti-government extremist groups is their explicit focus on recruiting current and former military, law enforcement and first responder personnel,” he added.